N. Korea Admits 1M-Tonne Food Shortfall
As with every “revelation” that even partially originates from the North Korean government, treat this with some skepticism:
North Korea has admitted for the first time to food shortages of a milion tonnes, the World Food Programme said on Monday, adding that in the absence of better donor support, millions are vulnerable to hunger. [Reuters, Lindsay Beck]
Note that this estimated shortfall is 250,000 tonnes higher than the WFP had last estimated, and consistent with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation’s latest estimate.
In the past that food gap — which represents about 20 percent of North Korea’s needs — was met by a combination of bilateral aid, WFP support, loans and commercial interests, but those sources are all drying up, the WFP said.
“This is a very significant development that they themselves are confirming they have a gap of 1 million tonnes,” WFP Asia director Tony Banbury told Reuters.
Banbury, you recall, was passed over as WFP Director in favor of Josette Sheeran recently. Banbury and fellow WPF official Richard Ragan have a long history of pretty much giving the North Koreans whatever they ask for, without asking any tough questions or making any firm demands to monitor whether that aid goes to the intended recipients.
“There is a real food security problem in the country that is now not being met either by domestic production or external sources.”
I’m convinced that North Korea begins to care about food shortages the instant they start to have some effect on groups that can affect Kim Jong Il’s hold on power — Pyongyang residents, the military, and populations in the border regions that have begun learning to live without the regime’s rations. With some limited signs that those groups’ food needs are approaching “critical” levels, we have more leverage to offer North Korea generous food aid if — and only if — we can monitor its distribution, just like the U.N. does everywhere else on earth it provides food aid (most of it paid for by U.S. taxpayers).
But the new rage is to capitulate all leverage we’ve built in recent years. Watch us offload tons of grain at Nampo and Chongjin, and then ask one year later why so many people are still starving.
it’s a vicious cycle…….that probably won’t be stopped until KJI gets knocked out someway, somehow.